Sunday, September 29, 2013

Some amateur gamebooks and their inspirations

There are loads of great amateur gamebooks out there and some of them have been inspired by a published gamebook or gamebook series.  They have drawn inspirations from their systems, their settings or their themes.

Isle of the Cyclops and The Hills of Phoros both by Andrew Wright - The way the gamebook is structured reminds me of Fabled Lands.  You have a lot of freedom to wander around and you have random encounters.

Hunger of the Wolf by Kieran Coghlan - This is a brilliant Fighting Fantasy gamebook that starts off with an origianl setting but there is a twist half way through which takes you to the site of an early Fighting Fantasy gamebook and you will also get to know more about a character from that gamebook.  The clue is in the name of the book.

Red World by Zachary Carango- This great gamebook has a brilliant and original system and a setting that is reminds me Heart of Ice.  You are living in a post apocalyptic world and are tasked to find a mysterious item where you come across all kinds of adventure.

Word Fell Silent by Kieran Coghlan- This is a well researched historical gamebook set in Jerusalem, 63AD.  It is a well written story with some good twists.  The stats for your character reminds me the Eternal Champions gamebooks .  The random encounter table on paragraph 48 also reminds me of Fabled Lands.

The Triad of Skulls by myself - My book uses the Fighting Fantasy game system and is set on Fire Island, the place where Island of the Lizard King (Fighting Fantasy 7) is set.  I also used some of the encounters from Island of the Lizard King as inspiration for what you may come across in the book - headhunters, the delerious prisoner, the cyclops, the black lions and the shaman.

The Rise of Skarlos by Ramsay Duff - This great gmaebook is a prequel to the Lovecraftian Fighting Fantasy book Beneath Nightmare Castle.

Escape Neuburg Keep by Khaxzan (online name)  - This book is set in the keep from Beneath Nightmare Castle.

The Achaeid Book 1 : The Enriyes by Ramsay Duff - This great gamebook is full of characters from Greek myths.


Beggars of Blacksand by Al Sander - This book has a great twist to it that I will not reveal here.  As well as being set in Blacksand, it also has some references to another early Fighting Fantasy.


Rampage! by Andrew Wright - The premise of this book is brilliant.  You are monster and the aim is to cause as much havoc as possible.  There is a flavourful game system to fit the monster theme.  There are some parody names of Fighting Fantasy characters (Gastromo instead of Yaztromo, The Curer instead of the Healer, Brilligan instead of Gillibran and many more.)


The Black Lobster by Andrew Wright - This book is based in the den of thieves that is Port Blacksand.
 

2 comments:

  1. I would like to say thank you to many amateur writers that produced gamebooks of quality in all similar if not superior to gamebooks on sale and they made their work available for free on line.
    THANK YOU!

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  2. Any chance you could throw my first amateur adventure a quick link, fightyourfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/choose-your-own-drunken-insane-drug.html ? :)

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